Deo Proximo

Hear the silence

The Hermetica

The Creation of Adam, painted by Michaelangelo, on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was painted between 1508 to 1512. Most people don't see that there is a hidden image in this painting. The shape of the robes that surround God is in the shape of the brain so God is inside the brain touching Adam's finger and endowing Adam with life. Why did Michaelangelo put God inside the image of the brain? Michaelangelo and other people during the Renaissance were influenced by a set of ancient tractates written by unknown author in ancient Egypt written in the 3rd century BC. These tractates were attributed to a mythical figure called Hermes Trimegistus, who is a fusion of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth. The Corpus Hermeticum was translated and printed in 1463 and was reprinted numerous times from then on. It may have been passages like the ones that inspired Michaelangelo to represent God being inside the brain in The Creation of Adam,

I [6] "This is what you must know: that in you which sees and hears is the word of the lord, but your mind is god the father; they are not divided from one another for their union is life."

[12] "Mind, the father of all, who is life and light, gave birth to a man like himself whom he loved as his own child. The man was most fair: he had the father's image; and god, who was really in love with his own form, bestowed on him all his craftworks."

XI [2] "But the energy of god is mind and soul; the energy of eternity is permanence and immortality; of the cosmos, recurrence and counter-recurrence; of time, increase and decrease; of becoming, quality, <and quantity>." and [4] "God is in mind, but mind is in soul, and soul is in matter, yet all these exist through eternity."

The Hermetica is similar to the Gnostic gospels and the Gnostic gospels even have some tracts from the Hermetica in them. The concepts contained in the Hermetica are very similar to the concepts in the Gnostic gospels, so if you can understand one you can understand the other quite easily.

The Hermetica appears to be scientifically accurate as well. It states plainly that the Sun is in the center of the Solar system and the Earth is a sphere. In 1463 the Hermetica was translated and printed and in 1492 Christopher Columbus discovers the American continent and proving that the Earth is round and in 1543 Nicolaus Copernicus published his treatise On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, in which the Heliocentric view of the Solar system was proposed in Europe for the first time. Previous to Copernicus, everyone believed in the Geocentric view of the Solar system, where they thought the Earth was in the center of the Solar system. Did the Hermetica help to shape the opinions of those that read it, on the nature of the Earth and its place in the Solar system? These are the passages in question:

Corpus Hermeticum XVI

[7] Since it is the visual ray itself, the sun shines all around the cosmos with the utmost brilliance, on the part above and on the part below. For the sun is situated in the center of the cosmos, wearing it like a crown. Like a good driver, it steadies the chariot of the cosmos and fastens the reins to itself to prevent the cosmos going out of control. And the reins are these: life and soul and spirit and immortality and becoming. The driver slackens the reins to let the cosmos go, not far away (to tell the truth) but along with him.

The part of this passage that saids that the Sun is like the driver of a chariot that controls the cosmos by reins, to prevent it from going out of control, is referring to the Sun's gravity.

[17] Around the sun are the eight spheres that depend from it: the sphere of the fixed stars, the six of the planets, and the one that surrounds the earth.

Asclepius.

[16] "This hollow of the world, round like a sphere, cannot itself, because of its quality or shape, be wholly visible."

Corpus Hermeticum and Asclepius

This is the Corpus Hermeticum and Asclepius in modern English, translated by Brian P. Copenhaver.

This is the whole Hermetica and Asclepius.

Quotes from the Corpus Hermeticum and Asclepius

These quotes come from the translation of the Corpus Hermeticum and Asclepius made by Brian P. Copenhaver, ISBN 0-521-42543-3, because it is in modern English and easier to understand.

These quotes will start with a particular passage in Asclepius because it is such an accurate prophecy made over 2000 years ago that describes the modern state of Man quite well,

[25] "They will prefer shadows to light, and they will find death more expedient than life. No one will look up to heaven. The reverent will be thought mad, the irreverent wise; the lunatic will be thought brave and the scoundrel will be taken for a decent person. Soul and all teachings about soul (that soul began as immortal or else expects to attain immortality) as I revealed them to you will be considered not simply laughable but even illusory. But - believe me - whoever dedicates himself to reverence of mind will find himself facing a capital penalty. They will establish new laws, new justice. Nothing holy, nothing reverent nor worthy of heaven or heavenly beings will be heard of or believed in the mind."

The Corpus Hermeticum.

Corpus Hermeticum 1

[1] Once, when thought came to me of the things that are and my thinking soared high and my bodily senses were restrained, like someone heavy with sleep from too much eating or toil of the body, an enormous being completely unbounded in size seemed to appear to me and call my name and say to me: "What do you want to hear and see; what do you want to learn and know from your understanding?"

This passages is talking about going into a higher state of consciousness after releasing the soul or the true self from the restraints of the body. By thought this passages means the thought of the spirit.

The Word, its origin and its meaning.

[6] "I am the light you saw, mind, your god," he said, "who existed before the watery nature that appeared out of darkness. The lightgiving word who comes from mind is the son of god."

Is this passage de ja vu? "The lightgiving word who comes from mind is the son of god." It sounds very similar to passages in the Bible that call Jesus the word and the Son of God. This suggests that the Hermetica, or those who followed it, had some kind of influence on the writers of the Bible or even Jesus. Jesus did spend his childhood in Egypt but the Bible is silent as to what Jesus did there and what he learned. The idea for God being the word may come from the pyramid itself and the Egyptian priesthood and anyone who learned from them called God the word.

The sarcophagus in the Kings chamber of the pyramid is the mouth in the figure of a man when looking at the passages from the north. The empty sarcophagus represents resurrection from death and transcending into a higher state of consciousness. But the empty sarcophagus, being in the position of the mouth, also represents the word. This is where the Bible and the Hermetica get the idea that God is the word. Jesus was resurrected from death and he was called the word. The man is looking towards the West, which is the direction that the Sun moves. This might have something to do with the Son of God. This figure is most likely Egyptian god Osiris, because Osiris is the god of death, the underworld and ressurection and the empty sarcophegus is about what Oiris represents. Osiris is reprsented by the Orion constellation and the pyramids are layed out in the shape of Orion's belt. The pyramid is explained in more detail on this page.

[6] "This is what you must know: that in you which sees and hears is the word of the lord, but your mind is god the father; they are not divided from one another for their union is life."

[16] And after this: "..., o my mind. I love the word also."

The King's chamber is the mind, which is god the father, the word is the empty sarcophagus and the union between the mind and the word is life since the empty sarcophagus represents resurrection from death.

There are numerous other passages that talk about the mind and the word together and creating the world. The idea that the word creates is from the Bible too, at the very beginning of it, Genesis 1:3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. This is a well known passage from the Bible that also says that the word is God and it creates life. John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

What does the Word mean? It means information, because that is what the Word consists of. Creation is information. The Word is what creates the world as this passage in the Corpus Hermeticum IV shows, [1] "Since the craftsman made the whole cosmos by reasoned speech, not by hand, you should conceive of him as present, as always existing, as having made all things, as the one and only and as having crafted by his own will the things that are."

The spirit is also compared to air and the breath and the mouth is what produces it. That is another reason why the empty sarcophagus is in the area of the mouth. This passage in the Hermetica, V [11], supports the belief that spirit is air, "The matter composed of the finest particles is air, but air is soul, soul is mind, and mind is god." A passage in Corpus Hermeticum I [30], says this, "Within myself I recorded the kindness of Poimandres, and I was deeply happy because I was filled with what I wished, for the sleep of my body became sobriety of soul, the closing of my eyes became true vision, my silence became pregnant with good, and the birthing of the word became a progeny of goods. This happened to me because I was receptive of mind - of Poimandres, that is, the word of sovereingnty. I have arrived, inspired with the divine breath of truth."

Other similarities between the Hermetica and The Bible

[4] "Then the darkness changed into something of a watery nature". There are numerous other passages that talk about the "watery nature" as well.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

[12] "Mind, the father of all, who is life and light, gave birth to a man like himself whom he loved as his own child. The man was most fair: he had the father's image; and god, who was really in love with his own form, bestowed on him all his craftworks."

Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;male and female he created them.

[16] "In him he had the nature of the cosmic framework of the seven, who are made of fire and spirit, as I told you, and without delay nature at once gave birth to seven men, androgyne and exalted, whose natures were like those of the seven governors."

The number 7 features prominatly in the Book of Genesis as well, and this particular passage in the Hermetica is about creation as well.

[18] "All living things, which had been androgyne, were sundered into two parts - humans along with them - and part of them became male, part likewise female. But god immediately spoke a holy speech: 'Increase in increasing and multiply in multitude, all you creatures and craftworks, and let him <who> is mindful recognize that he is immortal, that desire is the cause of death, and let him recognize all that exists.'"

Genesis 1:22 God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth."

This passage also talks about the sexual polarization in physical humans and this matches the Book of Genesis quite well. Also the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is also talking about polar opposites creating the physical world. Read this page to learn what the Book of Genesis is talking about.

There's no suggestion that the Bible and the Hermetica were copying each other in either way, but there's a possibility that both books made use of another source altogether and the writers of the Bible and the Hermetica were inspired by it, but put the concepts in their own way. The fact that the Bible and the Hermetica were calling God the word and used the term, "Son of God", mentioned before, also suggests that they were inspired by some other source.

Corpus Hermeticum I

[14] "When the man saw in the water the form like himself as it was in nature, he loved it and wished to inhabit it; wish and action came in the same moment, and he inhabited the unreasoning form. Nature took hold of her beloved, hugged him all about and embraced him, for they were lovers."

The unreasoning form is the flesh that the man or the spirit enters.

[15] "Because of this, unlike any other living thing on earth, mankind is twofold - in the body mortal but immortal in the essential man. Even though he is immortal and has authority over all things, mankind is affected by mortality because he is subject to fate; thus, although man is above the cosmic framework, he became a slave within it. He is androgyne because he comes from an androgyne father, and he never sleeps because he comes from one who is sleepless. <Yet love and sleep are his> masters."

This passage says that man in the flesh is both above and below, physical and spiritual, free and slave etc. The word androgyne means being without sex. That is a common believe in a lot of religions and mystical societies. The sexes are a feature of the physical body and not the spirit.

[19] "After god said this, providence, through fate and through the cosmic framework, caused acts of intercourse and set in train acts of birth; and all things were multiplied according to kind. The one who recognized himself attined the chosen good, but the one who loved the body that came from the error of desire goes on in darkness, errant, suffering sensibly the effects of death."

[26] This is the final good for those who have received knowledge: to be made god. Why do you still delay? Having learned all this, should you not become guide to the worthy so that through you the human race might be saved by god?"

This passage talks about salvation like Christiainity but the Hermetica, like the Gnostic gospels define salvation as attaining knowledge of the soul or who you are. When you gain knowledge you become god.

[27] And I began proclaiming to mankind the beauty of reverence and knowledge: "People, earthborn men, you who have surrendered yourselved to drunkenness and sleep and ignorance of god, make yourselves sober and end your drunken sickness, for you are bewitched in unreasoning sleep."

[28] When they heard, they gathered round with one accord. And I said, "Why have you surrendered yourselves to death, earthborn men, since you have the right to share in immortality? You who have journeyed with error, who have partnered with ignorance, think again: escape the shadowy light; leave corruption behind and take a share in immortality."

[29] Some of them, who had surrendered themselves to the way of death, resumed their mockin and withdrew, while those who desired to be taught cast themselves at my feet. Having made them rise, I became guide to my race, teaching them the words - and I sowed the words ofwisdom among them, and they were nourished from the ambrosial water. When evening came and the sun's light began to disappear entirely, I canded them to give thanks to god, and when each completed the thanksgiving, he turned to his own bed.

[30] Within myself I recorded the kindness of Poimandres, and I was deeply happy because I was filled with what I wished, for the sleep of my body became sobriety of soul, the closing of my eyes became true vision, my silence became pregnant with good, and the birthing of the word became a progeny of goods. This happened to me because I was receptive of mind - of Poimandres, that is, the word of sovereingnty. I have arrived, inspired with the divine breath of truth.

[31] You whom we address in silence, the unspeakable, the unsayable, accept pure speech offerings from a heart and soul that reach up to you. [32] Grant my request no to fail in the knowledge that befits our essence; give me power; and with this fight I shall enlighten those who are in ignorance, brothers of my race, but your sons. Thus I belive and I bear witness; I advance to life and light. Blessed are you, father. He who is your man wishes to join you in the work of sanctification since you have provided him all authority.

Corpus Hermeticum II

[6] But if place is intelligible, it is intelligible not as god but as place, and if it were intelligible as god, it would be regarded so not as place but as energy capable of containing. Yet everything moved is moved not in something moved but in something at rest. And the mover is also at rest, unable to be moved conjointly.

The statement, "if it were intelligible as god, it would be regarded so not as place but as energy capable of containing.", seems to be describing the nature of the universe. Matter itself is just tightly compacted energy, that's what Einstein's equation is all about. The second part, "Yet everything moved is moved not in something moved but in something at rest. And the mover is also at rest", correlates with what the Gnostics were saying in the page called the Concept of Rest. Everything in the universe moves in cycles, but the spirit world is opposite, it is at rest.

[8] "Thus, all motion is moved in immobility and by immobility. And it happens that the motion of the cosmos and of every living thing made of matter is produced not by things outside the body but by those within it acting upon the outside, by intelligible entities, either soul or spirit or something else incorporeal. For body does not move ensouled body, nor does it move any body at all, not even the soulless."

[12] "Mind as a whole wholly enclosing itself, free of all body, unerring, unaffected, untouched, at rest in itself capable of containing all things and preserving all that exists, and its rays (as it were) are the good, the truth, the archetype of spirit, the archetype of soul."

Corpus Hermeticum IV

[3] God shared reason among all people, O Tat, but not mind, though he begrudged it to none. Grudging envy comes not from on high; it forms below in the souls of people who do not possess mind."

"For what reason, then, did god not share mind with all of them, my father?"

"He wanted it put between souls, my child, as a prize for them to contest."

[4] "And where did he put it?"

"He filled a great mixing bowl with it and sent it below, appointing a herald whom he commanded to make the following proclamation to human hearts: 'Immerse yourself in the mixing bowl if your heart has the strength, if it believes you will rise up again to the one who sent the mixing bowl below, if it recognizes the purpose of your coming to be."

"All those who heeded the proclamation and immersed themselves in mind participated in knowledge and became perfect people because they received mind. But those who missed the point of the proclamation are people of reason because they did not receive <the gift of> mind as well and do not know the purpose or the agents of their coming to be.

[5] These people have sensations much like those of unreasoning animals, and, since their temperament is willful and angry, they feel no awe of things that deserve to be admired; they divert their attention to the pleasures and appetites of their bodies; and they believe that mankind came to be for such purposes. But those who participate in the gift that comes from god, O Tat, are immortal rather than mortal if one compares their deeds, for in a mind of their own they have comprehended all things on earth, things in heaven and even what lies beyond heaven. Having raised themselves so far, they have seen the good and, having seen it, they have come to regard the wasting of time here below as a calamity. They have scorned every corporeal and incorporeal thing, and they hasten toward the one and only.

[6] This, Tat, is the way to learn about mind, to {resolve perplexities} in divinity and to understand god. For the mixing bowl is divine."

The statement in this passage, "[5] These people have sensations much like those of unreasoning animals, and, since their temperament is willful and angry, they feel no awe of things that deserve to be admired; they divert their attention to the pleasures and appetites of their bodies; and they believe that mankind came to be for such purposes.", is talking about people in a lower state of consciousness. I dealt with this subject of the animal nature of people in the page called the Reptilian brain.

"I too wish to be immersed, my father"

"Unless you first hate your body, my child, you cannot love yourself, but when you have loved yourself, you will possess mind, and if you have mind, you will also have a share in the way to learn."

This statement has a parallel in the Bible, in Luke 14:26“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple."

"What do you mean by this, father?"

"My child, it is impossible to be engaged in both realms, the mortal and the divine. Since there are two kinds of entities, corporeal and incorporeal, corresponding to mortal and divine, one is left to choose one or the other, if choice is desired. One cannot {have both together when one is left to choose}, but lessening the one reveals the activity of the other."

The last passage has parallels with the Gnostic gospels and the Bible. In the Gnostic gospels, in the Teachings of Silvanus, there is this statement, "It is good for you, O man, to turn yourself toward the human, rather than toward the animal nature - I mean toward the fleshly. You will take on the likeness of the part toward which you will turn yourself." In the Bible there is this famous statement, Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money".

Corpus Hermeticum V

[2] You then, Tat, my child, pray first to the lord, the father, the only, who is not one but from whom the on comes; ask him te grace to enable you to understand so great a god, to permit even one ray of his to illuminate your thinking. Only understanding, because it, too, is invisible, sees the invisible, and if you have the strength, Tat, your mind's eye will see it. For the lord, who is ungrudging, is seen through the entire cosmos. Can you see understanding and hold it in your hands? Can you have a vision of the image of god? If what is in you is also invisible to you, how will god reveal his inner self to you through the eyes?

The part in this passage hat says "your mind's eye will see it." is talking about the third eye. It is saying that only the mind's eye will perceive god. There is a passage in the Bible that also talks about the third eye in Mattthew 6:22 "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 23But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!". Notice that it is says single, it is referring to one eye and not two.

Corpus Hermeticum VI

[1] The good, Asclepius, is in nothing except in god alone, or rather god himself is always the good. If this is so, the good must be the substance of all motion and generation (for nothing is abandonded by it), but this substance has and energy about it that stays at rest, that has no lack and no excess, that is perfectly complete, a source of supply, present in the beginning of all things. When I say that what supplies everything is good, I also mean that it is wholly and always good.

[4] All the things that are subject to the sight of the eyes are as phantoms and shadowy illusions, but these are not subject to it, especially the <essense> of the beautiful and the good.

This passage is saying that the reality that is perceived by the 5 senses is an illusion and there is no good, or better still reality in it. There are numberous passages in the Gnostic gospels that say the same thing as well.

Corpus Hermeticum VII

[1] Where are you heading in your drunkenness, you people? Have you swallowed the doctrine of ignorance undiluted, vomiting it up already because you cannot hold it? Stop and sober yourselves up! Look up with the eyes of the heart - if not all of you, at least those of you who have the power. The vice of ignorance floods the whole earth and utterly destroys the soul shut up in the body, preventing it from anchoring in the havens of deliverance.

[2] Surely you will not sink in this great flood? Those of you who can will take the ebb and gain the haven of deliverance and anchor there. Then, seek a guide to take you by the hand and lead you to the portals of knowledge. There shines the light cleansed of darkness. There no one is drunk. All are sober and gaze with the heart toward one who wishes to be seen, who is neither heard nor spoken of, who is seen not with the eyes but with mind and heart. But first you must rip off the tunic that you wear, the garment of ignorance, the foundation of vice, the bonds of corruption, the dark cage, the living death, the sentient corpse, the portable tomb, the resident thief, the one who hates through what he loves and envies through what he hates.

[3] Such is the odious tunic you have put on. It strangles you and drags you down with it so that you will not hate its viciousness, not look up and see the fair vision of truth and the good that lies within, not understand the plot that it has plotted against you when it made insensible the organs of sense, made them inapparent and unrecognized for what they are, blocked up with a great load of matter and jammed full of loathsome pleasure, so that you do not hear what you must hear nor observe what you must observe.

Corpus Hermeticum IX

[4] "Few seeds come from god, but they are potent and beautiful and good - virtue, moderation and reverence. Reverence is knowledge of god, and one who has come to know god, filled with all good things, has thoughts that are divine and not like those of the multitude. This is why those who are in knowledge do not please the multitude, nor does the multitude please them. They appear to be mad, and they bring ridicule on themselves. They are hated and scorned, and perhaps they may even be murdered. As I have said, vice must dwell here below since this is its native land. The earth is its native land, not the cosmos, as some will blasphemously claim. The god fearing person, at least, will withstand all this because he is aware of knowledge, for all things are good to such a person, even things that others find evil. If they lay plots against him, he refers it all to knowledge, and he alone makes evil into good."

Corpus Hermeticum X

[5] "Indeed, my child, would that we could. But we are still too weak now for this sight; we are not yet strong enough to open our mind's eyes and look on the incorruptible, incomprehensible beauty of that good. In the moment when you have nothing to say about it, you will see it, for the knowledge of it is divine silence and suppression of all the senses. [6] One who has understood it can understand nothing else, nor can he move his body in any way. He stays still, all bodily senses and motions forgotten. Having illuminated all his mind, this beauty kindles his whole soul and by means of body draws it upward, and beauty changes his whole person into essence. For when soul has looked on <the> beauty of the good, my child, it cannot be defied while in a human body."

This particular passage is referring to meditation and says that its purpose is to suppress the body and its senses so it's out of the way so you can be by yourself without it getting in the way.

[8] "The vice of soul is ignorance. For the soul, when it is blind and discerns none of the things that are nor their nature nor the good, is shaken by the bodily passions, and the wretched thing becomes - in ignorance of itself - a slave to vile and monstrous bodies, bearing the body like a burden, not ruling but being ruled. This is the vice of soul. [9] The virtue of soul, by contrast, is knowledge; for one who knows is good and reverent and already divine."

[15] "Envision the soul of a child, my son, which has not yet accepted its separation from itself; its body has not yet attained its full bulk, {of which it has only a little as yet}. How beautiful it is to look at, from every point of view, not yet sullied by the passions of the body, still depending closely from the soul of the cosmos. But when the body gets its bulk and drags the soul down to the body's grossness, the soul, having separated from itself, gives birth to forgetting, and it no longer shares in the beautiful and the good. The forgetting becomes vice."

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Corpus Hermeticum XI

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[2] "God makes eternity; eternity makes the cosmos; the cosmos makes time; time makes becoming. The essence (so to speak) of god is [the good, the beautiful, happiness,] wisdom; the essence of eternity is identity; of the cosmos, order; of time, change; of becoming, life and death. But the energy of god is mind and soul; the energy of eternity is permanence and immortality; of the cosmos, recurrence and counter-recurrence; of time, increase and decrease; of becoming, quality <and quantity>. Eternity, therefore, is in god, the cosmos in eternity, time in the cosmos, and becoming in time. And while eternity has stood still in god's presence, the cosmos moves in eternity, time passes in the cosmos, but becoming comes to be in time."

[3] "The source of all things is god; eternity is their essence; the cosmos is their matter. Eternity is the power of god, and the cosmos is eternity's work, but the cosmos has never come into being; it comes to be forever from eternity. Therefore, nothing in the cosmos will ever be corrupted (for eternity is incorruptible), nor will it pass away since eternity encloses the cosmos."

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Eternity is beyond time and space and so it contains everything inside of it. God is the container and not the contained. Think of it like the thoughts have to barrier but they are contained within the skull. Thoughts can move really fast but they are contained by a head that is not moving. The Universe has no barrier, but it is contained by the now, by the center and by rest.

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[19] "Consider this for yourself: command your soul to travel to India, and it will be there faster than your command. Command it to cross over to the ocean, and again it will quickly be there, not as having passed from place to place but simply as being there. Command it even to fly up to heaven, and it will not lack wings. Nothing will hinder it, not the fire of the sun, nor the aether, nor the swirl nor the bodies of the other stars. Cutting through them all, it will fly to the utmost body. But if you wish to break through the universe itself and look upon the things outside (if, indeed, there is anything outside the cosmos), it is within your power."

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It took quite a few years to understand what this passage meant. It is saying that time, speed and distance don't exist on the higher, spiritual levels. There is only the now, no past or future, there is only rest, no movement and there is only the center, no distance. That is how the true self can travel to India faster than someone can even think about it. These concepts are explained in a lot of detail in Flying Saucer Philosophy and The Axis of the Universe.

Corpus Hermeticum XII

[2] "Where soul is there also is mind, just as there is soul where life is. But the soul in unreasoning animals is life devoid of mind. Mind is a benefactor of human souls; it works on them for good. In things without reason, mind assists the natural impulse arising from each, but it opposes this impulse in human souls. Every soul, as soon as it has come to be in the body, is depraved by pain and pleasure. For in a composite body pain and pleasure seethe like juices; once immersed in them, the soul drowns."

[4] But those human souls that do not have mind as a guide are affected in the same way as souls of animals without reason. When mind connives with them and gives way to longings, the rush of appetite drives such souls to the longings that lead to unreason and, like animals without reason, they never cease their irrational anger and irrational longing, and they have never had enough of evil. For angers and longings are irrational vices that exceed all limits. God has imposed the law upon these souls as a torment and a reproof."

Corpus Hermeticum XIII

[7] "May it not be so, my child. Draw it to you, and it will come. Wish it, and it happens. Leave the senses of the body idle, and the birth of divinity will begin. Cleanse yourself of the irrational torments of matter."

[7] "This ignorance, my child, is the first torment; the second is grief; the third is incontinence; the fourth, lust; the fifth, injustice; the sixth, greed; the seventh, deceit; the eighth, envy; the ninth, treachery; the tenth, anger; the eleventh, recklessness; the twelfth, malice. These are twelve in number, but under them are many more besides, my child, and they use the prison of the body to torture the inward person with the sufferings of sense. Yet they withdraw (if not all at once) from one to whom god has shown mercy, and this is the basis of rebirth, the means and method. [8] From here on, my child, keep silence and say nothing; if you do so, you will not obstruct the mercy that comes to us from god. Henceforth, my child, rejoice; the powers of god purify you anew for articulation of the word."

[11] "Since god has made me tranquil, father, I no longer picture things with the sight of my eyes but with the mental energy that comes through the powers. I am in heaven, in earth, in water, in air; I am in animals and in plants; in the womb, before the womb, before the womb, after the womb; everywhere.

This passage is about how someone who is more in touch with themselves is more tranquil, that's something that people who have been meditating for a long time feel. Also these people have much better insight because they have activated their third eyes so they have a much broader view of reality.

[13] "Father, I see the universe and I see myself in mind."

"This, my child, is rebirth: no longer picturing things in three bodily dimensions. . . . through this discourse on being born again that I have noted down for you alone to avoid casting it all before the mob but [to give it] to those who god himself wishes."

This passage is saying that the concept of rebirth, which is something that Christians talk about all the time, is about being born into the spirit. A lot of people think that the term, "born again", means converting to a religion and attending church for the rest of your life. That is going into further slavery in addition to being a slave to the flesh. When someone is born again, in the true spiritual sense, they have a much broader view of reality, not just what they see with their eyes and the limitations of their bodies or the 3D world, as this passage says, but with their 3rd eyes. The second part of this passages tells the initiate not to cast this knowledge to the ignorant or the mob, but to give it to those who have the understanding. There is a similar passage in Matthew 7:6, which says, "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces." People have been persecuted for this kind of knowledge by the ignorant and that is why they have had to keep this knowledge to themselves and other people who have knowledge too. The elites and the ignorant, the sheeple, the mob etc, have tried to destroy this knowledge and persecute those who preach it.

The following passages seem to be talking about the 3rd eye.

[14] "Hold your tongue; do not give voice to the impossible! Else you will do wrong, and your mind's eye will be profaned. The sensible body of nature is far removed from essential generation. One can be dissolved, but the other is indissoluble; one is mortal, the other immortal. Do you not know that you have been born a god and a child of the one, as I, too, have?"

[17] "Together let us praise him, raised high above the heavens, creator of all nature. He is the mind's eye. May he accept praise from my powers."

Corpus Hermeticum XIV

[7] You need not be on guard against the diversity of things that come to be, fearing to attach something low and inglorious to god. God's glory is one, that he makes all things, and this making is like the body of god. There is nothing evil or shameful about the maker himself; such conditions are immediate consequences of generation, like corrosion on bronze or dirt on the body. The bronzesmith did not make the corrosion; the parents did not make the dirt; nor did god make evil. But the persistence of generation makes evil bloom like a sore, which is why god has made change, to repurify generation.

This passage is about the need for change from an old system to a new system because over time the system starts developing more and more problems and it starts to become more and more irrevelant. A system can start out being good at first but over generations it starts to degenerate to the point where changes need to be made for society to continue on. This is the the "order out of chaos" that Freemasons talk about. Society needs to be purified at the end of an age. There are many people who try to preserve the old system, but that is futile, especially if the old system has developed so many problems, has become so corrupt and has become so irrelevant. It's best to let it rot and to focus your time and energy on the new system instead.

Corpus Hermeticum XVI

[1] The very quality of the speech and the <sound> of Egyptian words have in themselves the energy of the objects they speak of.

This passage is quite interesting because the Hermetica says that the sound of Egyptians had an energy of the object they speak of in them. The problem that we have is that while archaeologists can read Egyptian hieroglyphs they don't know what they sounded like when they were spoken. The ancient Greeks in Alexandria and the writers of the Corpus Hermeticum would have known what the ancient Egyptian language sounded like because they were in ancient Egypt and they were with the ancient Egyptians who spoke that language and practiced that religion. That is a priviledge that we don't have today so we can't hear this language for ourselves.

Corpus Hermeticum XVIII

[1] If someone promises to bring harmony out of a piece of music played on many instruments, his effort will be laughable if during the performance discord among the instruments hinders his zeal. Since weak instruments are altogether unequal to the task, inevitably the spectators will jeer at the musician. Indeed, while this well-meaning person gives tirelessly of his art, <the hearer> finds fault with the weakness of the instruments. He who is truly a musician [ ] by nature, not only producing harmony in song but also providing the rhythm of the music appropriate to each instrument, this tireless musician is god, for it does not befit god to tire.

[2] If ever a performer wanted to excel in a musical contest, entering just after the trumpeters had likewise shown their skill, after the flautists had produced sweet music on their melodious instruments, after <others> had finished the singing of the song with reed-pipe and plectrum, no one would blame the musician's inspiration <if his instrument failed under the strain>, nor would they blame the almighty, to whom they would render due honor while finding fault with the defective instrument because, in fact, it created a hindrance to greater beauty by hindering the musician's rapport with the music and robbing the audience of sweet song.

[3] With us it is the same. Let no spectator irreverently find fault with our kind for weakness that belongs to the body. Let it be known, however, that god is a tireless inspiration, who always and in the same way possesses the skill appropriate to him, whose blessings are uninterrupted, who continually enjoys the same kind attentions. [4] If even the craftsman Phidias used material that did not yield to his striving for consummate diversity . . . <and> our musician could only make the best of his ability, let us not put the blame on him but find fault with the weak string that [slackened the tension,] lowered the tone and muffled the rhythm of the lovely music.

[14] There above, then, beings are not different from one another, nor does inconstancy exist there above. All think one thought, and all have the same foreknowledge; they have one mind, the father. One sense works in them, and the charm that brings them together is love, the same love that makes one harmony act in all things.

Asclepius.

[6] "Of all these kinds, the ensouled have roots reaching them from on high to below, but living things without soul branch from a root that grows from beneath to above. Some things are nourished on composite food, others on simple food. The types of food are two: one for the soul, the other for the body - the two substances of which living things consist. Soul feeds on the ever restless stirring of the world. Bodies grow on water and earth, foods of the lower world. The spirit that fills all mixes with everything and enlivens everything.

[7] "Is consciousness not uniform in all people, Trismegistus?"

"Not all have gained true understanding, Asclepius. They are deceived, pursuing, on rash impulse and without due consideration of reason, an image that begets malice in their minds and transforms the best of living things into a beastly nature with brutal habits.

[9] Some very small number of these humans, endowed with pure mind, have been allotted the honored duty of looking up to heaven. But those who lagged behind <at> a lower reach of understanding, under the body's bulk and because theirs is a mingled twofold nature, have been appointed to care for the elements and these lower objects.

[11] Is it not the prize our parents had, the one we wish - in most faithful prayer - may be presented to us as well if it be agreeable to divine fidelity: the prize, that is, of discharge and release from worldly custody, of loosing the bonds of mortality so that god may restore us, pure and holy, to the nature of our higher part, to the divine?"

[12] "Of course, but some find this incredible, others fictitious, others laughable perhaps. For in this bodily life the pleasure one takes from possessions is a delight, but this delight, as they say, is a noose round the soul's neck that keeps mankind tied to the part that makes him mortal, nor does the malice that begrudges immortality let him acknowledge the part of divinity in him.

[22] "The reverent are not many, in any case, no more than a few whose number in the world can be counted, whence it happens that evil remains in the many because they lack wisdom and knowledge of all the things that are. Scorn for the vices of the whole world - and a cure for those vices - comes from understanding the divine plan upon which all things have been based. But when ignorance and folly persist, all vices thrive and wound the soul with incurable disorders. Tainted and corrupted by them, the soul grows inflamed as if poisoned - except the souls of those who have the sovereign remedy of learning and understanding."

[24] "Do you not know, Asclepius, that Egypt is an image of heaven or, to be more precise, that everything governed and moved in heaven came down to Egypt and was transferred there? If truth were told, our land is the temple of the whole world."

The pyramids of Giza are in the shape of Orion's belt and the book called Heavens Mirror by Graham Hancock and Robert Beauval was the first book that made the general public aware of this. But this seemed to have been known by the ancient writers of the Hermetica because they mentioned that "Egypt is an image of heaven". It goes even further saying that "everything governed and moved in heaven came down to Egypt and was transferred there?". Different people will interpret that statement in different ways. The Ufo believers will say that that statement is referring to aliens coming to Earth in the past and governing Mankind as well creating ancient civilizations and their monuments. That is the materialistic interpretation, but another interpretation could be that the energies of the universe and the spirit world come down to Egypt. The last sentence is very interesting, "If truth were told, our land is the temple of the whole world." The Giza pyramid is in the geographical center of the Earth's landmass and so any "temple of the whole world." would be in the center of the Earth's landmass. Is that a coincidence? Were the ancient writers of the Hermetica aware of that fact? They may have learned that fact from the Egyptian priesthood. Plato said he learned about the existence of Atlantis from the Egyptian priesthood as well. The Egyptian priesthood gave the Greeks information and some of that has been revealed to us by the Greek philosophers before the Egyptian priesthood disappeared for good.

Corpus Hermeticum V [6] "Who made the heart in the form of a pyramid?". They pyramid is in the geographical center of the world's landmass and it is not a coincidence that they chose to put the world's largest monument at this location. The Hermetica says that the heart is in the form of a pyramid and this maybe what the Great pyramid represents, the heart of the Earth.

The next few paragraphs show an accurate prophecy about the fall of the ancient Egyptian civilization and how it will be taken over by foriegners who will bring in a new religion and culture and they will stamp out the ancient Egyptian religion for good. This prophecy comes right after the passage that says that Egypt is an image of heaven.

[24] "And yet, since it befits the wise to know all things in advance, of this you must not remain ignorant: a time will come when it will appear that the Egyptians paid respect to divinity with faithful mind and painstaking reverence - to no purpose. All their holy worship will be disappointed and perish without effect, for divinity will return from earth to heaven, and Egypt will be abandoned. The land that was the seat of reverence will be widowed by the powers and left destitute of their presence. When foreigners occupy the land and territory, not only will reverence fall into neglect but, even harder, a prohibition under penalty prescribed by law (so-called) will be enacted against reverence, fidelity and divine worship. Then this most holy land, seat of shrines and temples, will be filled completely with tombs and corpses."

"O Egypt, Egypt, of your reverent deeds only stories will survive, and they will be incredible to your children! Only words cut in stone will survive to tell your faithful works, and the Scythian or Indian or some such neighbor barbarian will dwell in Egypt. For divinity goes back to heaven, and all the people will die, deserted, as Egypt will be widowed and deserted by god and human. I call to you, most holy river, and I tell your future: a torrent of blood will fill you to the banks, and you will burst over them; not only will blood pollute your divine waters, it will also make them break out everywhere, and the number of the entombed will be much larger than the living. Whoever survives will be recognized as Egyptian only by his language; in his actions he will seem a foreigner."

[25] "Asclepius, why do you weep? Egypt herself will be persuaded to deeds much wickeder than these, and she will be steeped in evils far worse. A land once holy, most loving of divinity, by reason of her reverence the only land on earth where the gods settled, she who taught holiness and fidelity will be an example of utter <un>belief. In their weariness the people of that time will find the world nothing to wonder at or to worship. This all - a good thing that never had nor has nor will have its better - will be endangered. People will find it oppressive and scorn it. They will not cherish this entire world, a work of god beyond compare, a glorious construction, a bounty composed of images in multiform variety, a mechanism for god's will ungrudgingly supporting his work, making a unity of everything that can be honored, praised and finally loved by those who see it, a multiform accumulation taken as a single thing."

"They will prefer shadows to light, and they will find death more expedient than life. No one will look up to heaven. The reverent will be thought mad, the irreverent wise; the lunatic will be thought brave and the scoundrel will be taken for a decent person. Soul and all teachings about soul (that soul began as immortal or else expects to attain immortality) as I revealed them to you will be considered not simply laughable but even illusory. But - believe me - whoever dedicates himself to reverence of mind will find himself facing a capital penalty. They will establish new laws, new justice. Nothing holy, nothing reverent nor worthy of heaven or heavenly beings will be heard of or believed in the mind."

"How mournful when the gods withdraw from mankind! Only the baleful angels remain to mingle with humans, seizing the wretches and driving them to every outrageous crime - war, looting, trickery and all that is contrary to the nature of souls. Then neigher will the earth stand firm nor the sea be sailable; stars will not cross heaven nor will the course of the stars stand firm in heaven. Every divine voice will grow mute in enforced silence. The fruits of the earth will rot; the soil will no more be fertile; and the very air will droop in gloomy lethargy."

[26] "Such will be the old age of the world: irreverence, disorder, disregard for everything good. When all this comes to pass, Asclepius, then the master and father, the god whose power is primary, governor of the first god, will look on this conduct and these willful crimes, and in an act of will - which is god's benevolence - he will take his stand against the vices and the perversion in everything, righting wrongs, washing away malice in a flood or consuming it in fire or ending it by spreading pestilential disease everywhere. Then he will restore the world to its beauty of old so that the world itself will again seem deserving of worship and wonder, and with constant benedictions and proclamations of praise the people of that time will honor the god who makes and restores so great a work. And this will be the geniture of the world: a reformation of all good things and a restitution, most holy and most reverent, of nature itself, reordered in the course of time <but through an act of will,> which is and was everlasting and without beginning. For god's will has no beginning; it remains the same, everlasting in its present state. God's nature is deliberation; will is the supreme goodness."

The following statement is rather strange, it says that the gods will withdraw to a city in the direction of the setting Sun and the whole race of people will follow them.

[27] The gods who rule the earth will <withdraw>, and they will be stationed in a city founded at Egypt's farthest border toward the setting sun, where the whole race of mortals will hasten by land and sea."

There's only one place I can think of that is towards the setting Sun or the west of Egypt at its farthest border, which means it's a long way away, and where all races of people have gone to. These gods rule the world and the place they are stationed in will be the most powerful place in the world. There is evidence that ancient Egyptians may have been in the American continent and they were well aware its existance, http://www.members.tripod.com/~kon_artz/cultures/egyptame.htm. There is also evidence of tobacco and cocaine in Egyptian mummies, http://newspaperrock.bluecorncomics.com/2010/03/egyptian-mummies-with-tobacco-and.htmAlso many books like Fingerprints of the Gods show lots of evidence of the ancients in Egypt and the middle east knew about the existance of the American continent. If the ancient Egyptians were on the American continent and even had settlements there then that would have been considered the farthest part of their border as this passage says. This passage goes further with this statement,

"But tell me where these gods of yours are now, Trismegistus?"

"Stationed in the great city on the Libyan mountain. And, for the time being, let that be their story."

Was there some great city on a Libyan mountain in the past? The writers of the Hermetica knew more than we do now.

[29] For the father and master of all, who alone is all, shows himself freely to all - not where as in a place nor how as through some quality nor how much as in a quantity but by illuminating people with the understanding that comes only through mind.

This is a very good description of the nature of God in this world.

And when the shadows of error have been scattered from a person's soul and he has perceived the light of truth, he couples himself with divine understanding in his whole consciousness, and when his love of it has freed him from the part of nature that makes him mortal, he conceives confidence in immortality to come. This is what will separate the good from the wicked. When he has seen the light of reason as if with his eyes, every good person is enlightened by fidelity, reverence, wisdom, worship and respect for god, and the confidence of his belief puts him as far from humanity as the sun outshines the stars. In fact, the sun illuminates the other stars not so much by the intensity of its light as by its divinity and holiness. The sun is indeed a second god, Asclepius, believe it, governing all things and shedding light on all that are in the world, ensouled and soulless."

[31] Though it always stirs, time in its own way still has the power and character of stability by the very necessity of recurring upon itself.

This passage is saying that time is cycles and its purpose is to maintain stability or balance. When something is separated from the source then it will cycle around the source to maintain a balance. The further something is away from the source the slower it will cycle around the source and the closer it is to the source the faster it cycles around the source.